Lifetime Network is leaving its competition in the dust when it comes to enlisting women behind the camera. Rob Sharenow, president of programming at A+E Network, kicked off a recent TCA presentation with an important announcement: he said that Lifetime has 78 percent female directors, compared to the industry average of 17 percent.

The event included a Lifetime panel featuring female actors-directors Kim Raver, Alyssa Milano, Monika Mitchell, Erika Christensen, Janice Cooke, Ginnifer Goodwin, Angela Fairley, Rhonda Baraka, Tiffany Hines, and Claire Scanlon. The panelists discussed the importance of achieving a minimum 50/50 gender equity by 2020.

A question about whether male characters would suffer in light of the increasing number of women directing caused the women to “chuckle” — and surprisingly not let out a frustrated scream, Deadline reports.

“I think female directors take that into consideration more than maybe a male director would,” said “Jane Green’s Tempting Fate” star Milano. “I know that [our director Kim Raver] was very adamant about making sure that all the characters were equally as developed.”

As for the difference between working with male and female directors, “Jane Green’s To Have and To Hold” star Christensen weighed in, “I can’t believe it’s taken me until probably yesterday that I think I am more willing to be vulnerable with a woman, which is extremely valuable for the art form.” She added, “You wouldn’t have to mention any of your particular female problems but you know that they get it. That’s a factor in things, that there’s just understanding. And you can certainly have that with any human being but it’s a specificity that does help.”

Mitchell, director of “To Have and To Hold,” emphasized the lack of opportunities in film and TV for female directors of photography. “It’s like what people used to say about women directors, that there just aren’t any DPs but there are tons,” she explained. “You just have to look for them and hire them.”

According to a report from Variety, “Pride & Prejudice in Atlanta” director Baraka revealed that she always asks for female DPs on her projects but is consistently “turned down” by those above her. “I keep asking, though!” she said.

Milano admitted that she didn’t used to feel that she could go to unions with her concerns, but that’s changed. “I used to joke that whenever there was an animal on set there would be someone from the Humane Society [there],” she recalled, but “women are made to get totally naked with not one protection mechanism anywhere. I think all of that is going to totally change.”

Goodwin, who co-stars in “I Am Somebody’s Child: The Regina Louise Story,” suggested that having women in the important decision-making roles on projects allows the actors to feel safer. “We’re going to be harassed a lot less when there are a lot more women around,” she said.

“If there’s not opportunity, then you can’t expand your career,” Raver noted, saying that she was inspiring by her time with Shondaland, where she would go to work and see female directors, DPSs, and writers.